Better the Devil

This fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller blends a suspenseful, stolen-identity mystery with resonant themes of queer identity and the search for found family. Readers meet a queer runaway teen, who, desperate to avoid being returned to his abusive, hyper-religious parents, makes a rash and high-stakes decision. While in police custody, he spots a missing-person flyer with an age-progressed image of Nate Beaumont, a child who vanished a decade earlier when he was just six years old, and assumes the child’s identity. The initial deception, which he intended to abandon as soon as possible, turns complicated when “Nate” is welcomed by the Beaumont family, who offer him a life of comfort and acceptance—a stark contrast to the existence he fled. Then unsettling discoveries are made, lending to the chilling suspicion that the real Nate wasn’t kidnapped, but murdered. Someone knows this Nate is an impostor, and they may be the same killer who is still lurking in the shadows of his seemingly perfect suburban home. Nate’s best pal, before he disappeared, was Miles, now a cute, true-crime-obsessed teen. Their “renewed” friendship, built on secrecy and a shared quest for the truth, provides a release from the story’s mounting tension. While Nate’s mother goes all in on accepting the major gaps in his memory, his father and a retired cop that worked on the original case are more skeptical. His brother Easton and stoner friend J.T., who was with Nate the evening he disappeared, provide “bro” vibes and another level of suspicion. Readers will discover that this model loving family is anything but perfect—and that unconditional love can be both wrong, and right, at the same time.